I got a question from one of my YouTube viewers asking what my nickname ‘Mod’ means, so I post this question on my Facebook page and received a few more questions regarding nicknames. A few people would like to know the most common Thai nicknames, so I searched for it and found “Top 10 most common Thai nicknames” surveyed by the The Ministry of Culture of Thailand.

1.เมย์ May /may/ : It is a girl’s nickname. I am sure every May was born in May.

2.พลอย Ploy/ploy/ : It is a girl’s nickname, meaning precious stone or gem.

Thai super star named ‘Ploy’

3.แนน Nan /naen/ : It is a girl’s nickname. This is not Thai language, these days Thai parents like to name their children with Western names.

4.ไอซ์ Ice /ái/ : It is both girl and boy’s name. It is a fashion nowadays that Thai parents choose an English word they think it sounds cool or cute to name their babies.

5.แบงค์ Bank : Boy’s name. Yep! It is another English word-that-sounds-cool-to-Thai-ears name.

6.น้ำ Nahm /náam/ means ‘water’. It’s a girl’s name.

7.ฟ้า Fah /fáa/ : Girl’s name meaning ‘sky’, ‘blue color’, or the short word for นางฟ้า /naang-fáa/ meaning ‘angel’

8.นิว New /niu/ : It is both girl and boy’s name. Another chosen English word.

9.บอล Ball /bon/ : boy’s name, as in round object you kick or throw or hit in a game

10.เบียร์ Beer /bia/ : Yes, it is ‘beer’ like in English meaning. Please don’t ask me why parents would want to name their children like this. Hopefully they are not alcoholic.

I was laughing when I read these names in the list because I know many people with those names. I think I know about 10 guys named บอล “Ball”.

Once in a while my friends and I discuss the topic ‘Why new- generation Thai parents have to name their babies with weird nicknames?’. The most strange nickname I ever heard of is สเตตัส ‘status’ , this is a name of my high school mate’s baby boy. She did update a lot of Facebook statuses during her pregnancy.

Thai kids in my generation or my parent’s are named after cute and small animals like แมว Maew (cat), นก Nok (bird), ปู Poo (crab), ปลา Pla (fish), กวาง Kwang (deer) etc. Those names seem to be uninteresting in present day, so people came up with some cooler names like “แร็คคูน”(Raccoon) who has brothers named “บีเวอร์” (Beaver) and ”ชิพมั้งค์” (Chipmunk)!!

Learn Thai Word: ห้าม /hâam/ Not Allow